January 03, 2011 02:30 PM
Steele cites Tolstoy, but quotes Dickens during RNC debate
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There were few fireworks during Monday's debate between the candidates hoping to be the next Republican National Committee chair.
One of the more cringe-worthy moments came when the candidates were asked to name their favorite book.
Current RNC chair Michael Steele announced that his favorite book was War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
But the crowd erupted in uncomfortable laughter when Steele quoted Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," he said.
At least he knew two things:
- a title of a book
- a quote from any book
For the GOP, he's well above average!
Your comment is very near what I was about to say. I would think him to be a intellectual wild man in the republican party.
Having made this observation, why in the world were they asking a question like this? It sounds like something you would ask a junior high student who was running for class president.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
the Repuke Party really doesn't have any intelligent, sophisticated, educated, savvy folks to put in the leadership position.
How hilarious is it that they have Tucker Carlson and Grover Norquist (I think that's him) quizzing the
candidates to RNC chairman.......very lame.!!
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
to look at a clip like this and make reference to the Star Wars cantina scene.
But there's a reason cliches are cliches ...
"Uhh...Marley was dead...and it was a dark and stormy night".
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Liberal and Proud of being able to quote Sheiks Peer, the famous Arab aristocrat.That makes you a bloody elitist if you ask me, not to mention a crypto-Muslim.
(/sn, if there's anybody who might miss the obvious)
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
The Dickens you say!
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
He was just testing the crowd to see if THEY knew it wasn't a quote from Tolstoy.
Your country is run by assholes. Just sad.
far left loon >.<
It's also populated by assholes. Equally sad.
Finally, we have found something we can make in America. We are good at creating assholes. Just look to the republican party for proof.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
..at producing large quantities of assholes, but they are poorly constructed and tend to leak all over the place.
Charlie Manson, it's all good.
"No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master." - Hunter S. Thompson
as Steele regarding his favorite book. War and Peace is also my favorite book. Damn!
he just pulled the title out of his ass, and never really read it. So don't feel too bad.
Yeah. I mean, nobody thinks he actually READ the thing, do they?
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
That entire clip was cringe-worthy. The Reagan Diaries, Decision Points and a book that numbnuts has likely never attempted to read.
Damn, the dumbing down of America is literally an epidemic, and considering Rice and Bush had degrees from Stanford and Yale, respectively, its worth noting that a degree is not oft times indicative of intellect either
Radix Omnium Malorum Avaritia
They're both foreigners and they're both dead. Steele was just trying to show his intellectual depth. Too bad he got his literary education from Cliff Notes and Classic Comics.
I agree, it's above average for a GOPer.
Tale of Two Cities = a Victorian era novel set during the French Revolution
War and Peace = a Victorian era novel set during Napoleon's invasion of Russia
So I'll give him 2/5ths of a point for at least showing some awareness of what century his favorite author lived in.
At least he didn't say "The Bible" or "A Purpose Driven Life."
he never read either. He probably had his assistant look up the longest book on the classics lists and pull him a quote. One of those people who thinks size matters...
He should have said, "FOX in Sox," and get that FOX mention in there.
He needs a job, and they could use someone his shade in their all peach and flesh colored box of crayola's.
The chick who thought they asked her about her favorite bar was funny. It would have been funnier if she had named the bondage club and bar that Michael Steele was called on the carpet for letting his people go there. Plus she didn't know the title of her favorite book and only said Bush's new book. Taking all this into account, I think she is perfect to replace Steele. She might be just as much fun for us as he has been.
I don't think the guy sitting beside Tucker even noticed the error Steele made. It appeared either he wasn't listening or he just didn't get it.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Step one: In answer to a question for which you can't think of an honest answer (in this case, it should have been, "I haven't given it any thought, so I really can't give you an answer.") give an untrue answer that you think will sound smart. (Technique employed extensively in Palin's Veep campaign.)
Step two: When called on it, say you meant something else or that the viewer/listener misunderstood.
Step three: Blame the danged liberals/socialists/Obama.
What is it with Republicans? Sarah Palin citing C.S. Lewis as her favorite writer and now Michael Steele blathering on about Tolstoy and Dickens. Do they not know that America has a rich literary tradition from which to draw and that it would be more appropriate for someone seeking to represent America?
smacks of uppidity liberal intellectualism, which is supremely suspect due to the fact that all the reagan democrats went from liberal arts education to business administration during the 80's so they could embrace (thoroughly) the american capitalistic dream of small business ownership, retirement at the age of 35 (to enjoy the good life) or brokerage for investments and getting rich overnight. God, they got rich (some of them) and lost their minds/souls in the process.
wem
It could have been worse, like the time Steele went to Dr. Dre to have his prostate examined.
Leadership like that, and the Dems still can't beat 'em.
What?? No "Atlas Shrugged"?? Who on earth would let these filthy pinko commie terrorist atheist muslim liberal freedom-hating socialists chair the RNC?!
...that given the way in which Dickens used his writing (both as a journalist and as a novelist) to bring attention to the problems of poverty and social injustice, one might be inclined to think it would be considered politically incorrect in Republican circles these days to quote from his works! (Although if a majority of Republicans fail to realize that they would consider Dickens a dangerous liberal subversive were he alive today, it only serves to demonstrate how woefully and wantonly ignorant the vast majority of Americans have allowed themselves to become.)
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
They think Dickens was a dangerous liberal subversive, wait 'til they get a load of this "Jesus" guy.
I was just reading that Steele spent three years in seminary at Villanova University as he planned to be a priest.
I don't actually think Steele is 'stupid' per se; but he does seem to have the Repuke disease of emotional immaturity coupled with a tad of arrogance.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
per se
not knowing the facts, is ignorance. To do or say something having full knowledge of what is factual and doing or saying the opposite, is stupidity. Using that definition, one can comfortably say that almost all republicans/libertarians/tea-baggers are stupid. Not just brain-dead, vacuum-between-the-ears stupid, but george-w-bush stupid.
I don't think your definitions of intelligence vs. stupidity make sufficient allowance for the wantonly ignorant -- those who don't know the facts and know they don't know but simply don't give a damn, or those who don't know the facts but think they do and are far more interested in proving themselves right than they are in being accurate. In my opinion, that's a more accurate definition of stupidity -- there's no question that someone who understands the facts but deliberately misrepresents them is certainly unethical and manipulative, but I don't think you can legitimately call that person stupid because deceiving and exploiting people for your own benefit actually requires a certain amount of intelligence. The problem with both ignorance and intelligence (like so much else associated with human beings) is that they're inherently amoral and can be used to harm people as well as help them. There's nothing wrong with being ignorant as long as someone remains open-minded, willing to learn, and able to accept that he or she is capable of making mistakes. As always, it's the underlying motives and intentions of the person with the facts which determine whether those facts will be put to positive or negative ends -- and even then, the road to Hell is said to be paved with good intentions.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
the road to hell was paved with Republicans or do they line the firey pits?
brains were in that other bottle his mama keeps.
Michael Steele as a priest...the mind boggles!
Considering that the man talks like a rap star (despite the fact that he wasn't raised in the 'hood) and appears to have the materialistic tastes of one as well, I can't imagine that man ever being a halfway decent priest -- let alone a good one.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
...and people wonder why the Republican Party has degenerated over the years???
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
http://www.pontauchange.com/Gallery/CI9ONE.JPG His confusion is easily explained. Penguin Classic's are somewhat overlong so he always preferred the Cliff's Notes edition. And their covers all look the same.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
All those old white guys look the same anyway...
Hello desk. Meet my head.
These guys are soooooooooo deep, man!!
and have someone else (one of his aides) take the time to read (or more probably scan the abridged/abbreviated/tolstoy made easy/tolstoy for idiots 2 page version) which the aide obviously got confused with another book (by Charles Dickens - because he liked the authors last name) and crossed the two and made a national incident of the whole thing. to quote Kilgore Trout of Kurt Vonnegut Jr fame: 'wherever you go there you are...' Which was also used in Amadeus.
wem
I took a speedreading course and read War & Peace in one hour. It was about Russia.
You know the Republiborg collective only endorses reading genuine classics like "My Pet Goat" preferably the large print edition. Tolstoy was a Russki/Soviet troublemaker and therefore a subversive. And Dickens wrote about horrid social refuse we don't care to hang with, like the poor and dispossessed. You will be reassimilated immediately and forced to recite our party motto "ignorance is bliss" 100 times.
Resistance is futile.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
Holy Batman, batman! This stuff should be coming out of the mouth of Jon Stewart or (RIP) George Carlin.
My favorite is bar is my table" ?? WTF? (sorry didcha shay booook??)
"Regan Diarrheas" (Oh yeah, you bet - that's called be a kiss ass)
"The new book by GW" What? Don't even know its name?? (more ass kissing)
For crying out load, this all of the gravitas of Beavus and Butthead. These people are vying for the the head of the RNC? Did I get that right? My god, what a pantload.
I've said this about some people and its never good...They don't like what they like...they like what they think that people like them are supposed to like.
Favorite book? The Reagan Diaries
Favorite movie? Anything Reagan was in
Favorite comic book? SuperReagan
Favorite Christmas gift? A PartReagan in a pear tree
Favorite continent? North AmeReagan
Favorite American? Our founding fathers...and Ronald Reagan
If someone came along and had Reagan's actual principles and was, indeed, the 2nd coming of Reagan, he would be slapped down by the GOPs so hard only Ron Paul would know how bad it hurt.
The level of ignorance demonstrated by these boobs reminds me of an old SCTV skit in which the contestants
kept spitting out ridiculous,inane answers to questions the host(Eugene Levy doing an arrogantly impatient Alex Trebeck) hadn't even asked yet.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
Steele: I meant to say "Swann's Way". You know... call me Ishmael...
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
Favorite book? Are they picking the RNC Prez or Miss America? And are they sucking up to the dead?
God damn stupid ignorant retarded living pieces of shit! These are not aduts and the after what these scumbags have done to this country (not to mention the world) the Republican party should have the same status as the Nazi party in Germany.
Conservatives are lower than maggots. Fuck them all in hell forever.
And not one person here is surprised that he didn't say Uncle Tom's Cabin?
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